Church of St Michael is a Grade II* listed building in the Cumberland local planning authority area, England. First listed on 6 June 1951. Church.
Church of St Michael
- WRENN ID
- fallow-iron-sunrise
- Grade
- II*
- Local Planning Authority
- Cumberland
- Constituency
- Whitehaven and Workington MP: Josh MacAlister (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 6 June 1951
- Type
- Church
- Address
- Church of St Michael, Workington
- OS grid reference
- NX 997 289
- Coordinates
- 54.64572, -3.5553
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Church of St Michael is a parish church with a 12th-century tower. The nave was rebuilt in 1770 and again after a fire in 1888 by architects Bassett Smith and James Howes. It is constructed of hammer-dressed pink and calciferous sandstone, with the rebuilding done in similar materials but featuring red sandstone quoins, a string course, and a battlemented parapet with crocketed finials, all set on a chamfered plinth. The roof is made of graduated greenslate with coped gables and cross finials.
The church has a west tower that is three stories high, a nine-bay nave with aisles, and a single-bay chancel that includes a north vestry. The base of the tower is from the 12th century, while the upper storeys were added in 1770. The west doorway is elliptical-arched and features a Perpendicular-style overlight. There is a painted clock face on the west side with Roman numerals, situated below Perpendicular-style bell openings. The nave and aisles, completed in 1888, have traceried windows with two and three lights on two levels. The chancel contains a large traceried east window and a single-storey polygonal vestry.
Inside, the tower and porch feature a medieval pedestal font with an octagonal carved bowl, and the 12th-century tower arch has a broach-stopped hollow chamfer. There are built-in 12th-century cushion capitals, medieval slab fragments, and various 19th-century wall plaques. The interior of the nave has a barrel roof supported by braces, four-bay aisles, and a 19th-century gallery. The church contains a variety of late 19th-century and early 20th-century stained glass. The side chapel features a carved and painted reredos from 1933, while the chancel includes a 19th-century piscina and sedilia. Notably, there are effigies of Sir Christopher Curwen and his wife from around 1450 on a tomb base, complete with heraldic side panels.
Local climate
Church of St Michael sits in one of the wettest parts of the UK, with an average of 1,560 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 99% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 99% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 18 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 83% of listed buildings. Of these, 7 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
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